Wildlife in your Garden

COYBL25 said:
As mentioned above, make sure you clear the box out when they leave too, as there’s usually a couple of unhatched eggs and possibly dead chicks too.
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One year they must have abandoned and the whole clutch was dead, not a nice experience but in the main a neat empty nest is left.
My nesting box I've had for about 15yrs, I bought it at a wildlife centre jumble for £1 and it wasn't new then, still going strong.
 
larbert toffee said:
My nesting box I've had for about 15yrs, I bought it at a wildlife centre jumble for £1 and it wasn't new then, still going strong.
Click to expand...
Yeah, mine are still certainly usable but I thought I would make a couple of new ones just for the Hell of it lol
In fact I've just looked in the shed and don't really have any suitable bits of timber, so that's a job saved for another day :D I will clear the old ones and disinfect for now 🤷‍♂️
 
Sad to report my box of blue tits are all dead, my missus twice today chased a magpie 0ff, she said had it's head at the nestbox.
I've just checked, there were six dead all neat in the nest, it didn't look like carnage but maybe the parents have been spooked and abandoned them?
I'm not an expert but they still looked a week or so from fledging.
I hate magpies.
 

larbert toffee said:
Sad to report my box of blue tits are all dead, my missus twice today chased a magpie 0ff, she said had it's head at the nestbox.
I've just checked, there were six dead all neat in the nest, it didn't look like carnage but maybe the parents have been spooked and abandoned them?
I'm not an expert but they still looked a week or so from fledging.
I hate magpies.
Click to expand...
Sad that mate. Sounds like the magpie didn't get to the chicks but as you said it obviously did enough to spook the adults.
I don't know what kind of nest box you have, but I see so many (both home made and shop bought) that have a little perch outside the entrance hole (like the one below)
1716928282711.webp
There is no need at all for any perch. :rant:
All it does is give predators access and opportunity to enlarge the hole and harass fledgelings.
 
kev said:
Sad that mate. Sounds like the magpie didn't get to the chicks but as you said it obviously did enough to spook the adults.
I don't know what kind of nest box you have, but I see so many (both home made and shop bought) that have a little perch outside the entrance hole (like the one below)
View attachment 258577
There is no need at all for any perch. :rant:
All it does is give predators access and opportunity to enlarge the hole and harass fledgelings.
Click to expand...
I agree mate, mine is the same as that without the perch.
Th magpie was on the top of the box with it's head lowered to the hole.
Pretty sure if they knew the lid was hinged they'd be strong enough to gain access that way.
 
larbert toffee said:
Sad to report my box of blue tits are all dead, my missus twice today chased a magpie 0ff, she said had it's head at the nestbox.
I've just checked, there were six dead all neat in the nest, it didn't look like carnage but maybe the parents have been spooked and abandoned them?
I'm not an expert but they still looked a week or so from fledging.
I hate magpies.
Click to expand...
Gahhh... sorry lid.

Ours are still getting fed by their parents, I reckon they will be gone any day now all being well.
 
larbert toffee said:
I agree mate, mine is the same as that without the perch.
Th magpie was on the top of the box with it's head lowered to the hole.
Pretty sure if they knew the lid was hinged they'd be strong enough to gain access that way.
Click to expand...

It only takes a couple of hours for the chicks to starve to death, as they need constant feeding and can starve even if one of the parents bites the dust, as the remaining parent can`t feed them quickly enough.


I hate Magpies with a passion, but they`re so clever,

They sit on the tv aerials on the houses at the back of ours, which gives them a panoramic view of about a dozen gardens,

I`ve watched them from an upstairs window, as they follow the flight path of birds in and out of the gardens and then they go down onto the fences and shrubs, investigating where they`ve seen the parent birds go to. If there`s chicks they give themselves away, by their cheeping and once the Magpie knows that they`re there, it`s the end of them. Even if it`s a nest box, they just wait for them to stick their heads out and pick them off one by one.

One year, I laced a load of hens eggs with rat poison and put them on the shed roof. It must`ve got them, as the eggs went and the Magpies vanished during the breeding season.

However, when they invariably turned back up again and I put more baited eggs on the roof, the eggs didn`t get touched and I saw them looking at them from the vantage points too. It`s almost like stuff gets passed on amongst them.

It`s the same with the air gun too, I`ve shot a couple, but the rest of them seem to somehow learn, that the sight of someone in an upstairs window means danger and they scarper the moment they see any movement.

A lad I know has a Harris Hawks and that`s the only thing I know that is guaranteed to keep them away, as they don`t go near his back where the aviary that he keeps the Hawks in.



I`m surprised as many birds fledge as they do tbh.
 
COYBL25 said:
It only takes a couple of hours for the chicks to starve to death, as they need constant feeding and can starve even if one of the parents bites the dust, as the remaining parent can`t feed them quickly enough.


I hate Magpies with a passion, but they`re so clever,

They sit on the tv aerials on the houses at the back of ours, which gives them a panoramic view of about a dozen gardens,

I`ve watched them from an upstairs window, as they follow the flight path of birds in and out of the gardens and then they go down onto the fences and shrubs, investigating where they`ve seen the parent birds go to. If there`s chicks they give themselves away, by their cheeping and once the Magpie knows that they`re there, it`s the end of them. Even if it`s a nest box, they just wait for them to stick their heads out and pick them off one by one.

One year, I laced a load of hens eggs with rat poison and put them on the shed roof. It must`ve got them, as the eggs went and the Magpies vanished during the breeding season.

However, when they invariably turned back up again and I put more baited eggs on the roof, the eggs didn`t get touched and I saw them looking at them from the vantage points too. It`s almost like stuff gets passed on amongst them.

It`s the same with the air gun too, I`ve shot a couple, but the rest of them seem to somehow learn, that the sight of someone in an upstairs window means danger and they scarper the moment they see any movement.

A lad I know has a Harris Hawks and that`s the only thing I know that is guaranteed to keep them away, as they don`t go near his back where the aviary that he keeps the Hawks in.



I`m surprised as many birds fledge as they do tbh.
Click to expand...
Bloody magpies.
They punch horses too :D
 

COYBL25 said:
It only takes a couple of hours for the chicks to starve to death, as they need constant feeding and can starve even if one of the parents bites the dust, as the remaining parent can`t feed them quickly enough.


I hate Magpies with a passion, but they`re so clever,

They sit on the tv aerials on the houses at the back of ours, which gives them a panoramic view of about a dozen gardens,

I`ve watched them from an upstairs window, as they follow the flight path of birds in and out of the gardens and then they go down onto the fences and shrubs, investigating where they`ve seen the parent birds go to. If there`s chicks they give themselves away, by their cheeping and once the Magpie knows that they`re there, it`s the end of them. Even if it`s a nest box, they just wait for them to stick their heads out and pick them off one by one.

One year, I laced a load of hens eggs with rat poison and put them on the shed roof. It must`ve got them, as the eggs went and the Magpies vanished during the breeding season.

However, when they invariably turned back up again and I put more baited eggs on the roof, the eggs didn`t get touched and I saw them looking at them from the vantage points too. It`s almost like stuff gets passed on amongst them.
Click to expand...
For obvious reasons in 1940, bottled milk deliveries ceased in Holland.
And whatever the bird was that pecked at the bottle tops over there...bluetit whatever...had a life span of 2.5 / 3 yrs
Yet when milk deliveries resumed in 1948, within a short time the little buggers were at it again 🤔

COYBL25 said:
It`s the same with the air gun too, I`ve shot a couple, but the rest of them seem to somehow learn, that the sight of someone in an upstairs window means danger and they scarper the moment they see any movement.

A lad I know has a Harris Hawks and that`s the only thing I know that is guaranteed to keep them away, as they don`t go near his back where the aviary that he keeps the Hawks in.



I`m surprised as many birds fledge as they do tbh.
Click to expand...
 

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